E-commerce transactions enjoying healthy growth

PETALING JAYA: E-commerce is proving to be a boon for Malaysian businesses, with a survey finding that income from e-commerce transactions has grown at a rate of about 6% per year, up to 2017.

And companies appear to recognise the significance of e-commerce, too, as their spending on e-commerce transactions has also increased by about 8.3% annually.

A survey by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) found that income stemming from e-commerce transactions was at RM447.8bil in 2017 compared to RM398.2bil in 2015.

The main contributor was the manufacturing sector with a share of 64.2% (RM287.5bil), followed by services (RM152.6bil), and mining and quarrying (RM7bil).

It also found that Malaysian businesses generated e-commerce income mostly from domestic buyers, with a share of 89.3% (RM399.8bil).

The international market only contributed 10.7%.

Most income from e-commerce transactions were from business-to-business transactions, with companies earning RM352.2bil in income.

However, while business-to-consumer transactions only contributed RM82.5bil to the total income earned from e-commerce, it was growing at a rate of about 9.5% annually.

Business-to-government transactions came in at RM13.1bil in 2017, and growing at a rate of about 19.1% annually.

Companies appear to be leveraging on the potentials of e-commerce as they spent about RM228.8bil in 2017 compared to RM195.1bil in 2015.

The manufacturing sector spent the most for e-commerce transactions with about RM179.5bil, followed by the services sector (RM46.1bil) and mining and quarrying (RM2.6bil).

While companies spent the most with business-to-business transactions at RM213.1bil, the expenses on business-to-government transactions have increased by 32.7% on average per year.

Although not all Malaysian companies are engaged in e-commerce, the survey found that the number of companies with a web presence had increased from 28.4% in 2015 to 37.8% in 2017.

The findings were compiled based on DOSM’s Survey on Usage of ICT and E-Commerce by Establishment and Annual Economic Survey, which was undertaken in 2018 in reference to the previous year.